Differential accumulation of herpes simplex virus type 1 latency-associated transcripts in sensory and autonomic ganglia.

We have analyzed the capacity of sensory and autonomic ganglia to demonstrate latency-associated transcripts (LATs) following inoculation of the anterior chamber of the mouse eye with Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). In autonomic ganglia, the number of LAT-containing neurons decreased 50-fold or more from the acute to the latent phase, while in the trigeminal ganglion, the decrease was less than 2-fold. The decrease in autonomic ganglia could not be related to destruction of neurons expressing LATs, since these ganglia harbored substantial amounts of viral DNA. The data demonstrate that during the latent phase of the infection, accumulation of LATs varies depending on the type of infected neuron and suggest that some neurons may harbor a latent infection in the absence of LAT expression.